Healthy Heart

Mine is getting a good workout right now.   After years of not exercising consistently, I’ve somehow found myself training for the Great North Run 19/9/2010 (gulp).

So how on earth did I manage to let that happen?  Well, you know how you get asked if you’d like to do something that seems unlikely and far off in the future (like jumping out of a plane or in my case, running the half marathon), and you sort of say yes, sounds good.  Well that’s what I did.

Earlier this year my husband Robert kept mentioning we should enter for the Great North Run.  To appease him more than anything, I yes, go ahead apply never really believing we’d get selected.  After all, 50,000+ people run this popular event every year, so I figured our chances of getting selected were pretty low.  Anyway, it was months and months away, so I didn’t give it much thought.

Lo and behold, mid June we heard we’d got selected by the British Heart Foundation.  You can just imagine my joy and excitement can’t you.  I’m a fair weather girl by nature so the timing was perfect.  However, time management was an issue.  I normally have to be prised out of my office and away from my computer so fitting training into my daily schedule wasn’t something I looked forward to, especially as I hated exercise anyway.

The news coincided with my parents and our son being home for the holidays so I was able to wriggle out of exercising but I did use the time to get kitted out.  Luckily, I’d just subscribed to The Philosophers Notes by Brian Johnson which I highly recommend; I knew his audio book reviews would remind me to simply keep putting one foot in front of the other

So, four weeks ago I really wasn’t sure I could possibly do this.  The truth of the matter was, I didn’t really desire to do it and I had limited belief to boot.  Three weeks ago things weren’t much better.  I hated finding the time to train (preferring not to change my routine) so spent lots of energy resisting any attempts to get me out on the road by my Robert and son Chris who are both keen joggers.

Two weeks ago, there was a slight shift in my attitude as I got more mentally and physically prepared.  Throw a few bonuses into the equation (like dropping a few pounds in weight; sleeping better etc.) and hey presto, I think there’s a runner lurking inside me.

Consequently last week was quite a different story.  I’m amazed to say I’m actually starting to enjoy it.  I actually got out there and ran of my own volition.  What’s changed?  I’m still wearing the same running gear (oh alright, jogging gear), I’m still pounding the same roads but something has definitely changed.

Firstly, my belief, I concluded if thousands of people do this, then so can I.  Also, my desire to succeed kicked in, proof that action breeds motivation.  Now I’m not kidding myself that I’m going run it in a news worthy way, but I now know and feel because I’m prepared that as long as I keep working at it, I’ll be ok.

Funnily enough a client who’s a seasoned runner just informed me, whether I’m first or last, we all get the same medal.  Somehow it’s very reassuring to think I’ll have the same medal as Haile Gebrselassie ha ha!

So this week with seven weeks to go, I’m training and up to a comfortable (sort of) 10km in an hour.  Obviously I’m keeping a training journal, actually it’s a rather useful one I got from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Runners-World-Training-Journal/dp/1594865205/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280333829&sr=8-2-spell which I highly recommend if you’re results orientated like me and want to see your baby steps grow into something much bigger over time.

I’ll keep you posted but in the meantime, if you’d be good enough to sponsor either me or the British Heart Foundation, we’d very much appreciate anything you can give.  Simply visit http://original.justgiving.com/dawncampbell.  Thank you very much.

Dawn

Related posts:

1. Get Healthy with our New Year Sale – valid January only